Farewell to South America

Well its my final weekend in South America, and boy did the entire thing fly by. On my final day in Cusco I walked to the bus station to buy a ticket to Ica, Peru, 16 hours away. I decided to treat myself to "full Cama" meaning, first class, where you get leather seats, lots more room, and the seats fully recline (much like first class on an airplane). The best company is called Cruz Del Sur, they offer the most luxurious buses but also the most expensive, I decided I didnt need total bliss so I went with the cheaper option with a company called Flores. It was the same trip but instead of costing $50 Canadian it only cost $35. When the bus arrived I hopped on with a bus ticket for seat 53....I soon realized seat 53 didnt exist. The seats stopped at 52, and I was told to just sit down in an empty seat. However throughout the overnight trip I was awoken when a passenger came on the bus to find me in there seat, so I moved around about 3 times in the night. So good for you Flores, for selling imaginary seats then telling people that seat 48 is actually seat 53, and pretending to count to 53 stopping on any seat. It was actually okay in the end, just funny how they tried to explain that the seat numbers are actually different than whats posted on them. When I arrived in Ica, I took a quick bus ride to an oasis called Huacachina, a Lagoon in the middle of giant sand dunes as far as you can see. This place was the PERFECT place to end a trip, the hotels were affordable, with swimming pools, hammocks, amazing service and the type of atmosphere you expect at a 5 star getaway. I stayed 3 nights and did 2 dune buggy tours, one of which I rented a snowboard to do some sandboarding. The dune buggy tour is pretty wild, they drive towards sand peaks full speed and go over huge banks. It´s more of a roller coaster ride with cool views. I was reallllly careful not to get sand in my camera, because I was told its certain death to cameras. But one of the guys decided not to sandboard anymore so he asked if we wanted him to take photos. By the time I got my camera back he said the batteries had died, but in reality the camera was just broken. The lens is so full of sand the shutter doesnt work, so I´m going to try and find a repair shop in Lima. So now I´m in Lima, Peru, where I´ll fly to Costa Rica really late tomorrow night. Next time I write I´ll be in Central America!

Quick 5 random things I´ve experienced/seen in South America
1) Going into an empty restaurant in La Paz Bolivia, and asking the 10 year old bolivian girl for a menu in bad spanish. She replied saying she spoke english, in what sounded like an american accent. She ended up joining me for lunch and telling me the history of La Paz as well as how much she misses living in New York (she lived there for 6 years)....The most intelligent conversation I had about bolivia was with a 10 year old girl
2) Hearing about the dangers of many things, but feeling safe. In Brazil, I was told to take a bus from the airport, never a taxi because they´re dangerous. BUT I took a taxi anyways, which turned out to be safe, and awesome because the driver gave a free tour of Rio. Later hearing about a couple that took the bus, then 3 guys entered, held a gun to the driver telling him to drive, and robbed everyone on the bus.
3) Argentina has a strange lifestyle. They often work 9am-7pm, but get a Siesta break mid-day. This causes restaurants to be packed around 11pm, and bars to not open until 2am. Its not like this everywhere, but MANY dinner restaurants don´t get busy until around midnight, and a lot of bars/clubs dont open until 2 or 3
4) In Cusco, Peru, there are a lot of pan handlers who will talk to you, tell you they havent eaten lunch since yesterday, then try to sell their paintings, shine your shoes, or sell jewelry7knick knacks. One day I was just waiting to meet up with some friends and was getting hounded by everyone to buy stuff, then when I´d say no 5 times they´d sit down beside me and tell me there sad story. After about 10 minutes of this, one shoecleaner said he´d clean my shoes for 1 Sole (about 40 cents). I said okay fine, and he started to work. Noticing they were really dirty he started using his brush and this liquid to get them back to black, and after one shoe, he told me that the materials are actually going to cost 50 Soles (about $20) which is crazy since a room and meal cost 25 Soles. I got in a 5 minute confrontation with him, words were exchanged, and he basically left with 1 sole and gave me a death threat and told me he´d be waiting outside my hostel that night for me. I never saw him again.
5) Theres many more to pick, but I´ll finally leave it with last nights outing. Huacachina Peru is a very small place, totally set up for tourists. Theres one bar owner who kept coming out everytime we walked past and wanted to be our friend and have a party at his bar. Last night we went and we were the only people there (there was about 8 of us) but we stayed. He started teaching us how to make drinks, then eventually let us come back and use his stuff. By the end of the night we were just going behind his bar and making our own drinks, he didn´t care, he was too busy dancing because he is apparently the Salsa champion of Huacachina, claiming to be the real Michael Jackson.